All of our days in the parks were officially over, and our original plan was to start driving home on Sunday, January 16th, and finishing the drive on Monday, January 17th, so that way the kids didn't miss any school, and Ben could be back for his first day of the semester on Tuesday, January 18th. However, there was a snow and ice storm coming through on Sunday into Monday, and we did not want to be driving north through ice and snow. We didn't want our trip home to be dangerous or take extra time, so we decided to just delay going home by one day. It's not what we wanted to do, especially Ben because he would miss his first day of in person classes, but we felt it was the best decision.
We checked out of our rental house by 10:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, and it was a cloudy, rainy day. I was so glad that we had such wonderful weather the entire week we were in Florida. It only rained once for a brief period of time on the first day we were at Hollywood Studios, but every other day was warm, sunny, and beautiful. We decided to go back to Disney Springs for a little while because I was looking for a certain Loungefly backpack purse, that I was hoping I would be able to find there. Plus, we figured we could just walk around for a little while before heading out of the Orlando area. I was not able to find the backpack purse that I was looking for, but I did find a Disney sweatshirt that I purchased as a souvenir. There was a school choir performing, so we stood and watched that for a little while before saying good-bye to Disney and good-bye to Orlando.
Since we decided to stay for an extra day to wait out the snow/ice storm, we decided to spend the night at my grandpa's house, that now belongs to my dad. Luckily, I still had his house key in my purse from when my dad gave it to me back in the fall when I visited Chicago. We decided it would be good to save some money, show the kids where my grandpa lived, and even take advantage of the washer and dryer to get all of our laundry done. Samantha also had some schoolwork to do still that required internet to complete, and Aedan had some handwriting and other work to finish up as well, that was easier to do at a table, rather than in the car. We stopped at Chuy's for some delicious Mexican food for lunch, before heading up to my grandpa's house, and then we spent the afternoon in his house with Samantha and Aedan working on homework, Owen taking a nap, Ben doing work to get ready for the semester, and me helping Aedan with homework while also doing the laundry.
I took a few pictures of things around the house, like this ceramic light-up Christmas tree that I have always liked and wouldn't mind having as a decoration in my home some day, as well a this little painting of a deer in the woods, which I actually painted when I was taking painting classes as a little girl. I didn't know that I had given this to my grandpa. The kids thought my painting was really good, and they couldn't believe that I had done that myself.
Even though it was chillier than it had been any of the rest of our week in Florida, we felt the pool in the community where my grandpa's house was, and the water was heated and didn't feel too bad, so we decided to all go swimming together as our last hurrah in Florida. The kids were braver than I was swimming in the water, and I got cold a lot faster and spent more time in the hot tub, but it was still a good way to spend our evening. After swimming everyone got showered and in pajamas while I went to Perkins to pick up our carry-out order. The restaurant took forever to have our food ready, so we didn't eat until almost 7:30 that night, but luckily we were kind of used to eating at different times. We basically ate, hung out in the living room where everyone got comfy on separate couches/chairs, and then we tucked everyone into bed. We planned on driving ten hours the following day, so we knew it was going to be a long day.
Our trip home Monday and Tuesday was largely uneventful, which was good. We were glad that we waited an extra day to avoid any bad weather. The kids did well in the car, even though we were all sad to be leaving Florida, leaving vacation, and going back home to the north, to the cold, and to school/work. We wanted to be back in time to get everything situated on Tuesday night. Luckily, school was cancelled for the kids (and me) on Tuesday anyway due to the weather, so they didn't miss any extra school. We also wanted to be back to pick up Izzy from the Peiffers, and our little baby from the respite home. She did well while we were gone, although she struggled with being sick most of the time with a pretty bad cold, cough, and even a fever for a couple days. The lady taking care of her said that a couple of her kids got sick from our little baby, one of them being an older boy who worked, so he had to test himself for Covid, just to be safe, and he tested negative, so she just assumed that our little baby also did not have Covid, just a really bad cold and cough. I felt bad that she was dealing with a sick baby, but I knew she was getting lots of love and cuddles, and I was glad that she could just stay at her home and not have to go to daycare. It gave our little baby a chance to nap consistently and get as much rest as she needed. Nevertheless, we were very excited to be reunited again. Samantha had to come with me to pick up our little baby because she couldn't wait to hold her again. It was cute to see that she really did recognize and remember us, and it's amazing how much bigger she looked even from being apart from her for a week and a half.
The kids asked for some of their Harry Potter treats after dinner that night, so Aedan had some salt water taffy, and Samantha and Owen shared some of their chocolate cauldron. They were all very pleased with their choices.
Wednesday, January 19th was back to reality with Samantha and Aedan going back to school, Owen going back to Heather's house, Ben starting off his new semester where he is now teaching five classes instead of four, me going back to work, and Isabella going back to daycare. Wednesday mornings are the day when Ben leaves early for work, and I have to drop everyone off where they need to be, which usually means that the mornings are pretty crazy, but the kids actually did really well getting ready for school and out of the house that morning, which I was grateful for. When I dropped our little baby off at daycare, she cried pretty hard, which was difficult for me to see. She probably had just gotten out of the habit of going there, and didn't know what to think when I handed her over to the daycare workers. It made me feel sad to walk away from her as she cried, but they said she didn't cry for very long after I left.
Here is a picture of Samantha from school that Wednesday. She was the winner of her Social Studies Kahoot review game.
Work went fine for me that day, but I found myself daydreaming about being in Florida, and wishing I was there instead. I went grocery shopping after work, since we didn't have any food in the house after being gone in Florida, and luckily, AWANA was cancelled due to sickness, so that freed up a little more of our time that evening, which was nice. Here is a picture Ben took of me helping Samantha with her saxophone lesson book as she prepared for her upcoming lesson.
We still had all of our Christmas decorations and Christmas tree up because I didn't have time to take things down before we left. It felt a little weird still having it look like Christmas as we approached the end of January, but I figured I would take everything down once I had the chance and the time.
Here is a picture of Aedan from school on Thursday, busy at his desk, reading through his pile of books.
Samantha's 6th grade math class with Mrs. James had a special sledding day planned for Thursday, which she was looking forward to. It was meant to be something fun to allow them to enjoy the snow with their classmates, and also a math lesson where they measured the distance the sleds would travel down the hill. Here is a video Mrs. James took of the class going down the hill. I'm glad that these teachers plan such fun activities for the kids to enjoy, even while at school.
Thursday was another busy day with all of our normal stuff like work, school, and preschool. But to add to that, we also had a tour scheduled for Trucksville Early Childhood Education Center as a possible option for Owen to attend preschool next year. There are a lot of people that I know that use this preschool, and I have only heard good things about it. We are looking for something that is three days a week, but only half day. I don't think Owen needs to be going to preschool all day. He will have enough years of his life where he has to go to school all day. Samantha and Aedan only ever went half days for preschool. The only reason he is going longer to preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays this year is because I was looking to have him in somewhere longer so I could do subbing on the days he was at preschool, and it wouldn't impact Ben's work schedule as much. We also want him to be in a more academic preschool where he will be getting prepared for kindergarten. I know he will be fine in kindergarten especially because he will turn 5 this coming September 17th, but won't be able to start kindergarten until the following year due to the birthday cut-off. I want him to be able to learn, grow, and play, but also be able to have time at home to play and spend time with me doing things in his last year "at home" before starting school. Especially since I am thinking about not working at all next year and trying to take two classes each semester to get more of my master's degree done, we don't need Owen at preschool all day, and we also don't need the extra expense of that either. Anyways, I really liked the preschool. The rooms all looked so welcoming and friendly and child-friendly. They had lots of hands-on centers set up, lots of books and toys in the classroom, as well as a large gym to play in and a playground outside. We got the paperwork to register Owen for it, and planned on filling it out and putting in our deposit the next day to hold his spot. We know it fills up fast, so we wanted to be sure that we were on top of things. Owen was really excited to see all the rooms, and there were a couple that he really liked because of the toys that were in it. I could see him thriving there, and I was glad to able to tour it and get a feel for what it's like.
Then, we had to somehow get/eat dinner and drop Samantha off at the Stanley's house so she could go to the Bookworm Club at Barnes and Noble with Cadence that night. We ended up just going through the Taco Bell drive through, so it worked out okay, but it made for a pretty crazy, busy day.
Our little baby was also very tired out from the day and just getting used to being at daycare again where she never takes a nap. Here she is cuddled up on my shoulder that evening once we got back home. She's not usually a particularly cuddly baby, so I enjoyed these sweet little snuggles from her.
After eating dinner and hanging out for a little while, it was time to get the boys and our little baby ready for bed. It was my turn with our little baby, and I got a couple of cute pictures of her smiling. Even when she's tired, she's still a pretty happy baby. She has a very nice smile.
Being gone for a week and a half on vacation, means the things you have to do just get piled up for when you get back, so that's how this week back from Florida felt. The caseworkers, Katherine and Ashley came for their monthly home visit Friday morning, so it was a bit crazy getting all of that done in one morning, but it was nice that they both came together because in the past they have come at separate times, meaning we have two home visits a month. They never stay for very long, and we don't really have any questions at this point, so we just talk for a few minutes, they see our little baby, and then they take off.
Our little baby had a visit with her mom that morning, like she usually does on Fridays. Samantha and Aedan get picked up on the van, and then I do my best to get Owen and our little baby ready and feed her a bottle. I also make lunch for Owen and I because we are in Wilkes-Barre over lunchtime while we wait for the visit to be over. When I dropped our little visitor off for her visit that morning, even though I was running ten minutes late, her mom and grandma weren't even there yet. I guess they were supposed to be on their way over on the bus, since they don't have transportation, but I was surprised that after not seeing her for a while, that they weren't there and ready for their visit. While the visit took place, Owen and I went over to Alysse's house to hang out, since no other mom was able to meet up that morning, and it was just her and me. We had a good time talking and catching up with each other, as we hadn't really talked since before Christmastime. It's nice feeling like I actually have a friend here. It's always hard moving to a new place and meeting new people, especially because Covid kind of put a hold on everything.
On Saturday, we didn't have any plans. We just needed a low-key day at home to rest, get caught up on things, and not feel like we had anywhere to go or anything to do. Aedan had been asking for a while about making a stop motion video on my phone. I didn't find a way he could just do that with my regular video function, so I downloaded this stop motion video app on my phone and let him have my phone to record videos and sound effects to go along with it. I saved the video on my phone because it was just so cute and great. Aedan spent the entire afternoon on this, and his creativity was pretty impressive. I love how much he likes Star Wars, how he keeps track of all his favorite characters, the sound effects that he adds in, the songs that he sings, and the silliness as well as seriousness with which he made this video. I just love him so much. He is so cute to me. Star Wars and Legos are definitely his two favorite things right now. Really, nothing else matters to him. I can't wait to see more videos that he makes like this!
(Blog about January 16-22, 2022)
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